The Beavers Back

[Beaverslayer]

Well everyone, I'm back and I must say I have missed this place. Thanks to all that sent me emails asking how things were going, and also the Birthday wishes, you guys and gals are GREAT.

Well anyways, I'm starting a new vest so I thought, what the hey may as well do a tutorial while I'm at it. This will most likely turn out to be a very long thread, but again, what the hey...

Well first off what I do, is I layout the drawing that I am going to be carving into the shoulder piece. As shown in the pictures, you can see that I use 3 pieces of 3M Transparancy Films for this. I will draw what I'm looking for on regular paper in pencil, this way I can erase and make changes as needed. Then I will trace the final design onto the transparancy film, making sure that I put marks on it so that I know where exactly it sits on the leather shoulder piece.

Now, using the stylus, I'll transfer the design into the leather. I will not case the leather like a lot of you do, I will just use the spray bottle and wet the area that is going to be worked on. Once the design is completely transfered onto the leather, I will check to make sure that I haven't missed any of the drawing. I once made a matching pair of mens and ladies vest, and on the one Eagle on the mans vest, I missed the bottom half of the Eagles beak. I never noticed this until the vest was complete...DUH...

After that's all done, and I'm confident that all the drawing is there, I will start to carve. On these shoulder pieces I DO NOT use the swivel knife and cut. The reason for this is that, it is a piece of the garment that tends to move quite a bit and is always being bent and folded. With knife cuts, then there will be a great reduction in the strength, and we don't want that. I use a steep beveler instead, this greatly reduces the chance of actually cutting through the leather.

I use 2oz leather for these shoulder pieces, as anything heavier would not fold and twist right to fit the body, and would make the vest uncomfirtable to wear.

Well here's the picturses so far, as I go along, I'll be explaining each step of the proccess, and will be taking pictures as well, as I do know how much everyone loves pictures.

The layout drawing

The cut leather

Laying out the design

Laying out the design

Laying out the design

Laying out the design

The deisgn scribed onto leather

Starting to carve

Stay tuned, as there is LOTS more to come. If anyone has questions, as I can imagine there will be lots, please ask, I will endeavor to answer them as quick as possible.

Ken

[leatheroo]

oooh beaver, so glad to have you back..you have been missed... this project looks very interesting and i cant wait for more posts. love the design

[LarryB]

I like it ... can't wait to see the final pics. Thanks for sharing.

[Rawhide]

Welcome back Beav . We missed you!

Hope all is well, and thanks for the tutorial!

[shirleyz]

Beav that looks amazing!!!!

Love it.

Shirley

[tazzmann]

Hey Beav! Looks Awesome, can't wait to see this one progress!

[Don101]

welcome back kinda missed you around here bud, tutorial looks like its gonna be a good one, Don

[TomSwede]

back Beaver! Glad to have you around again!

Looks to be a great tut this one and inspirational too. I have a vest top-piece abandoned years ago laying around.

Tooling looks awesome already on this one, so

Tom

[Spider]

I see you're making a Skeletor vest. I will get my Darth Vader Mask and we can battle. lol This is gonna look so cool.

[Denise]

Welcome back Beav! Nice to see the maple leaf showing up here again.

[David]

Welcome back guy,

Where ya been keepin yourself.....Looking forward to the tutorial.

Dave Theobald

[SCOUTER]

Beaver! Welcome back! That little hiatus seemed to improve your carving skills! Sweet!

[leathercat]

hi im leather cat a new that is a fine peace of work there im not as good as you because im 9 but if you want to see my work it is called the school bag tag!

:D

!leathercat!

[Tina]

There's a lot of "skull makers" in the forum, but I actually love your design Ken on this vest. Keeping an eye on you:-)

[Beaverslayer]

Here's the shoulder piece after about 4 1/2 hours carving.....my thumb hurts. Should have her finished tomorrow night I hope. Then we'll move into the layout and sizing of the rest of the vest.

Thanks for the compliments so far.

Ken

[bustedlifter]

Nice work Beav! The design really pops.. oh,yeah, great to have you back!

[Gray]

Who knew the Beav had such talent...Eddie must be jealous. Welcome back, Mr. Slayer.

[ClayB]

Hey Ken,

It's really nice to have you back! The carving detail on your piece is REALLY nice. It's going to be fun seeing the process you use to make this into a finished vest. Thanks for taking the time to do this for all of us here on the forum.

Clay

[Beaverslayer]

Well thank you so far with the compliments, they are appreciated. Now it's on to the pattern making.

First off you need to know the measurements of the person wearing the vest. You need chest/bust measurement, from the indent in the throst (below adems apple) to the top of the belt, and from the first vertabrea to the top of the belt on the back.

As this vest is going to be for a 37" chest and the customer has requested that it also fir on the outside of a jacket, I have had to make a few allowances for this.

As you see in the picture, ther front panel is 11 1/2" wide, there is a 1/2" extra on all edges (except the "V" on top) for folding over to make a finished edge and to accomodate the lacing. This will give me a 10 1/2" width on each front piece, or 21" in total across the front.

The back piece is shown as only half, as I just flip it over when marking out the leather (saves poster board). You can see that it is 7 1/2" wide, not includeing the 1/2" fold, which is needed on the sides and bottom. So in total I will have a 15" back piece, add this to the 21" in front gives you a total of 36".

Now when it is constructed, there will be a minimum 1" gap between the front and back on both sides where the side adjusting laces go. So add this 2" to the overall measurements, and you get 38" in total for the chest measurement. Using the adjusting laces on the side, this vest can be made 2" samller or up to 4" larger to accomodate the wearing over a jacket, or weight gain or loss.

This is the pattern for the pockets and the side adjustors. The pocket pattern is also used for the inside pocket as well, but is cut from Pigskin Suede instead of the garment leather.

These pictures give you a look at how the side adjustor is cut 3/4" smaller than the area that it will be finally attached to. The reason for this, is that when you fold the outer edge over, you don't want the fold to be all bunched up and cause you problems. Once the outer edge is folded over and the lacing done, this piece is held in by one half of the lacing that will be done, and there is a minimal ammount of structural integrity needed at these points.

This picture shows you how the side adjustors will basically be assembled when we get to this point, I wanted to show you this, so I wouldn't forget later.

So now that you have the basic pattern down, it's time to lay it out on a side of garment leather, or deerskin or whatever you want to make a vest out of. I tend to use the area around the legs for the pockets, as they have some very nice texture to them and this adds to the look of the vest. Try to be very careful that you are not placing your template over any defects or brand marks, this is very annoying once you cut all the leather and find a "Bar U" brand somewhere on your piece.

More to come soon. Thanks for looking

Ken

[Spider]

Wow bro you are on it!!!! Very impressive.

[Beaverslayer]

Well here's the next step in the procedure for all that's taking notes. (There will be a test at the end)

When marking your leather to cut, I use a Gel Pen. They are great for marking on garment leather, as the marks will just rub right off when your done with it. I use a Pentech Fireworks pen, usually Silver in color as is shows up real good on black leather.

The hardest piece to layout and mark is the back piece. If you want, you can make a complete back template instead. If you only use a half template, then make sure you put marks on the centre line, so when you flip it over to mark the other side, you have something to line it up with.

Lay your leather out nice and flat, being careful not to stretch it, you just want it to lay naturally.

You can see that there are a few wrinkles showing in the picture, this will not be a problem, as they will not show in the final vest. If you were to try and get all the wrinkles out, you would have to stretch the leather and this would cause far worst problems.

Here's a picture of the Gel Pen

[Beaverslayer]

Next step is to make sure that the two pieces that you are going to join fit correctly. This is important as you don't want to apply the glue, then as your joining them together, finding out that they don't fit properly, and have to redo the whole thing.

Then cut some 5/8" strips of pigskin. These are to be used to join the two pieces together and add some structural support to the seams.

[leathercat]

that looks good i wish i could do that

[Beaverslayer]

Leathercat, if you keep going the way you are, one day soon you too will be able to make one or anything like it.Ken

Edited March 22, 2008 by Beaverslayer

[Beaverslayer]

The next step is to glue the two pieces together, this will be the same proccess with each time we have to join two pieces of leather edge to edge.I use a water soluable contact cement. It's the same as normal Barges and such, except it is water soluable. It is very strong and will hold leather together very well. The main reason I use this rather than Barges, is that it will just rub right off of the finished side of the leather with your thumb and not leave any residue. Also there is no foul oder.First you want to apply a small ammount of glue to the edge of your shoulder piece. Try not to use to much, as it isn't needed. I use a small paint brush to apply it with....NO Q-TIPS!!!

Next, do the same to the back panel of the vest.

On this piece only apply the glue to within 1/2" of the outer edge, as the last 1/2" of leather is to be folded over and is not glued to the shoulder piece.

Next, being VERY careful not to stretch the leather, and on a flat surface, join the two pieces together. Start in the middle where the tip of the shoulder piece meets the centre of the back piece. Using your finger nail or the edge of your thumb, press the two edges together. Use yoyr roller to roll back and forth across the two pieces to help bond them.

Then you want to take your roller and roll the seam together FACE DOWN. This not only helps to make the bond, but doing it face down will make the finished side of the vest even, as the tooling hide is a bit thicker than the garment leather.